Les Sorcieres De Salem (1957)

Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692. After being spurned from his wife's (Simone Signoret) bed, a Puritan farmer (Yves Montand) beds down with a teenage girl (Mylene Demongeot). When he later rejects her, she and a group of other girls feign possession and accuse fellow villagers of witchcraft. Her intention is to have his wife executed for witchcraft and thus leaving the husband to her. Based on the 1953 play THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller and adapted for the screen by Jean Paul Sartre and directed by Raymond Rouleau. Miller's play was an allegory on the "witch hunts" by the House Un-American Activities Committee from that period. It wasn't until 1996 that Hollywood made a film version of Miller's play. But almost 40 years earlier, the French had no compunctions about making a movie out of Miller's controversial piece. It seems odd at first to see such an American story played out in French but one soon gets over it. Sartre's screenplay is faithful to the play and well acted by all and forthright in a way that would not have been possible for Hollywood in 1957. Still powerful stuff some 40 years later. With Michel Piccoli, Alfred Adam, Pascale Petit and Jean Debucourt.